Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 77 



arius in 1597. Later writers, particularly Muffet and also Jonston, 

 have made good use of Aldrovandi. Although Muffet cannot be 

 accused (see fig. 4) of reproducing Aldrovandi's dra^ving of the 

 glowworm in toto, much of the material is the same, and an excellent 

 idea of what was known concerning this insect and other luminous 

 " insects " (centipedes) in the sixteenth century can be obtained 

 from his Theatre of Insects (1658) . 



Other writers of this period who mentioned fireflies in Europe 

 were Bishop Simon Majolus {ca. 1520-1597) born in Piedmont, who 

 wrote Dies Caniculares (Tomi VII 1 ed. Mogunt. 1600) with de- 

 scriptions of insects (including the coccojo) and Adam Lonicer or 

 Adamus Lonicerus (1528-1586) , a German physician, who wrote 

 Naturaliae Historiae Opus Novum, etc. published at Frankfort in 

 1551. He mentioned Cicindelae or " Joannes Kafer " among twelve 

 other insects, spoken of as flying worms and described under " volati- 

 libus " as was customary at that time. 



Johann Thomas Freigius (died 1583) , a Basel author, who pub- 

 lished Questiones Physicae in 1579, also described cicindelae as 

 " wingless Pygolampides which light from their hind parts and the 

 winged, which blind the eyes at night with their splendor." Finally, 

 Caspar Schwenckfeld (1563-1609) , a Hirschberg physician, described 

 the local fauna of Silesia in Theriotropheum Silesiae in quo Ani- 

 malium, etc." Ligniciae, 1603. Among other insects he described 

 a Cicindela, evidently a species of Phausis, as " a flying insect similar 

 to Cantharides, with two luminous spots that light at night or in 

 darkness. It appears on summer evenings in paths and meadows." 

 The insect was called Pygolampis aquatica, Nitedula palustris, 

 Cantharis aquatica, or Wasser Kaferlin. 



THOMAS muffet 



The London physician, Thomas Muffet, Moffet, Mouffet, or 

 Moufetus (1553-1604) was much younger than Aldrovandi and his 

 interests in nature were more restricted. Muffet was closely asso- 

 ciated in later years with Thomas Penny (ca. 1530-1588) , also a 

 physician, botanist, and entomologist, who had been asked by 

 Gesner to complete a history of insects started by Edward Wotton 

 (1492-1555) . Both Muffet and Penny traveled extensively although 

 independently in Europe. Using the collections of Penny and the 

 notes of Wotton and Gesner, Muffet ^° prepared a manuscript, first 



*" Muffet also wrote a book on diet, corrected and enlarged by Christopher Bennett 

 and published in 1655 as Health's improvement, or rules comprizing and discovering 

 the nature, method and manner of preparing all sorts of food used in this nation. 



